But their evidence was not allowed to be used as part of the prosecution.

Among them was a woman who claimed she had been groped while a teenager in the 1970s and a celebrity who claimed he groped her during a live television broadcast.

An application was made after the trial had started for the account of a celebrity who claimed Harris had groped her during the broadcast in 1996 to be included as part of the prosecution, but this was rejected.

One claim presented before the trial started included a woman who claimed she met Harris in 1977 aged 14 when he stayed at a motel near Sydney.

It is claimed he touched her bottom and waist, before pushing her up against a door and saying: "Rolfie deserves a cuddle". He then allegedly followed her to the lift and touched her breasts, trying to stop her from leaving.

On another occasion in 2005, it is claimed that Harris grabbed a woman who was working at a Berkshire pub where a party was being held for broadcaster Michael Parkinson and started to kiss her neck. She claimed Harris did this in front of his wife Alwen.

A fourth woman said she met the defendant when he was doing an interview with the BBC during her art class in Belfast in 1991.

She claimed that he forced his tongue into her mouth, and described him as "opportunistic and predatory".

Another woman claimed that in 1996 when she was 13 or 14 she met the defendant while he was in a tent at a fete in Bray, and he said he liked her jumper and wanted to see what was underneath it.

Three years later in 1999, it was claimed that Harris met a 24-year-old woman, who had mental health problems, while she was on holiday with friends.

It is alleged that he put his hand in her trousers and touched her breasts when he came to the villa where she was staying, and that there was another sexual encounter after Harris got into her bed when she was having a nap.

Prosecutors also asked to use the testimony of a woman who said she met the defendant at an art competition in Kensington Olympia in 2001 when she was 20, and said Harris touched her bottom when they were posing for a photo.

During the trial Australian media also reported claims by a radio host and a former newsreader that they had received unwanted attention from Harris.

The radio host alleged that the performer had grabbed her breast after an interview in 2001, while the former ABC TV newsreader said she and a female producer were also groped in 2000.